
Class _3V^7-1j1, 

Book ^2-3 

Copyright N° ._ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



J 



The 
Great Commission 



Wentworth F, Stewart 



Introduction by 
Bishop Joseph F. Berry 

and 

Theodore S. Henderson 




NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & GRAHAM 






"»^. M ..11 I H III..|>, i . ,^-.,.MJBM* 

LIBRARY of C0Nl2KE%Sj 
I Two Copies Rece'vfcO \ 

DEC 7 \90? \ 

Oe^riffi' tntry ? 



Copyright, 1907, by 
EATON & MAINS. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
The Evangelistic Situation 

Page 

Indicative Problems 4 

The Problem of Alienation 4 

The Problem of Indifference 7 

CHAPTER II 
The Church Facing the Emergency 
Forcing Results Must Give Way to Generating 

Conditions 10 

The Gospel Has Not Lost Its Power 12 

A Life-Giving Gospel Demands a Life-Saving 

Church 14 

Return to First Principles 18 

CHAPTER III 
The Great Commission Renewed 

Discipleship Needs Reinterpretation 24 

" Back to Christ '' 26 

At His Feet 28 

'' In His Steps" 30 

The Upper Room 31 

Power for Service 33 

CHAPTER IV 

The Evangelistic Attitude, or the Christian 

Vision of the Prodigal World 

The Condescending Lord 38 

The Compassionate Christ 40 

The Optimism of Jesus 43 

Appealing to Men 49 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER V 

The Correct Measure of the Evangelistic Spirit, 
OR THE Cost of Saving the World 

Page 
Humanity Is Away from the Church Because the 

Church Is Away from Humanity 53 

We Cannot Save the World by a Committee 56 

We Cannot Import nor Organize a Revival 59 

The Urgency of the Inner Consciousness 61 

" He Saved Others, Himself He Could Not Save '^ . 64 

We Must Not Push the World Off Our Hearts 66 

" He Went a Little Farther" 69 

CHAPTER VI 
Abiding Evangelism; A New Emphasis 

Take Christ to Men 73 

The Church Must Go into the World, or the World 

Will Come into the Church 75 

This Will Give Entrance to Communities from 

Which We Are Now Barred 79 

This Larger Conception Means Larger Results .... 82 
Furnishes the Only Condition of Continuous 

Evangelism 84 

CHAPTER VII 
The Preacher, and His Part 

" An Apostle of Jesus Christ" 89 

A Crucial Man 91 

A Sensitive Student 94 

He Will Be a Preacher of the Prophetic Note 96 

Evangelistic Preaching for Effect 98 

Stake One's Life for a Cause 101 

Conclusion 102 



INTRODUCTION 
Bishop J. F. Berry^ D.D,, LL.D. 

Mr. Stewart has given us a living book. 
Ee writes with a stylus of steel. Several 
illuminating volumes have come from that 
pen during the past few years, but none 
has gripped the vital principles of evangel- 
ism like this one. To write a few lines of 
introduction to these burning chapters is 
a privilege which I prize. 

This question of evangelism is ablaze. 
Ministers are preaching about it, editors 
are writing about it, conventions and con- 
vocations are discussing it. The Church 
is seeking to ascertain its duty concerning 
it, and the desire to know the best methods 
of reaching the unsaved is widespread and 
eager. 

Certain forms of professional evangel- 
ism have had their day. The methods em- 
ployed were unduly mechanical. Too 
much stress was placed upon the human 

V 



INTEODUCTION 

element. The organization was over-or- 
ganized. The pastor's place in the move- 
ment was too small. Meager responsi- 
bility was carried by the people in the 
pew. Great interest was aroused. Much 
enthusiasm was generated. Multitudes 
of people became ^^interested.'^ But the 
permanent results have been alarmingly 
small. A better day has dawned. This 
dook is an index finger pointing to that 
day. 

"Pastoral evangelism^' is the key-note 
of the new crusade. The normal minister 
is an evangelist. His chief business is to 
reach unsaved people. His heart glows 
with an intense passion for souls. He 
may not be eloquent ; he may not be mag- 
netic ; he may not be an expert master of 
assemblies ; he may not be resourceful in 
the manipulation of congregations as 
some evangelists are. But he will har- 
vest souls. The man who shirks this 
work, pleading lack of adaptation, is not 
a normal minister of Jesus Christ. 

The pastor-evangelist will discover 
vi 



INTEODUCTION 

mighty evangelistic forces in the member- 
ship of his church. He will preach the 
doctrine that every true Christian has the 
spirit of the propaganda upon him, and 
that a church member who is indifferent 
to the spread of Christ^s kingdom is not a 
Christian at all. These forces of his 
Church — lawyers, doctors, business men, 
teachers, mothers — he will organize, in- 
struct, direct and inspire. He will guide 
them into the waiting harvest fields — 
will be the leader of the evangelistic 
forces of his own church. If the business 
ability represented in our official boards, 
the sagacity and devotion represented in 
our Ladies^ Aid and Women^s Missionary 
Societies, the talent represented in our 
brigades of Sunday school teachers, and 
the enthusiasm represented in the Ep- 
worth League could all be harnessed for 
the work of soul-winning and baptized 
with the fires of real pentecost, what 
would not be done in thousands of our 
churches ? 

These and kindred phases of modern 
vii 



INTRODUCTION 

evangelism stand out with splendid 
emphasis upon these pages. He who 
reads the first chapter will read all. I 
expect the little volume to have a wide and 
an appreciative reading, and that pastors 
and people who read will be enriched, in- 
structed and blessed. 

Joseph H. Berry. 



viu 



INTEODUCTION 

Eev- Theodore S. Henderson^ D.D. 

The conviction that we are now in the 
midst of an evangelistic awakening is the 
reason for this volume. The evangelistic 
note, the most difficult note to strike and 
maintain, is becoming dominant in the 
pulpit. Thorough-going, sane, continu- 
ous, sympathetic evangelism is being de- 
manded by the pew as the solvent for the 
ills of modern society. The supreme need 
is not for evangelistic methods, but for 
evangelistic men who dare to infuse the 
evangelistic motive into every department 
of life and Christian service. The Church 
has an evangelistic conscience; we are 
conscious that evangelistic triumph is im- 
perative. But we need to have that evan- 
gelistic conscience awakened to such a 
degree that evangelistic confidence shall 
be created and maintained; confidence 
enough in the evangel of Christ that noth- 
ix 



INTEODUCTION 

ing else will save men from sin, and that 
this evangel when proclaimed fearlessly, 
faithfully, and fully by spirit-filled mes- 
sengers will transform sinful men into 
the likeness of Christ. Methodism was 
once aflame with evangelistic courage; 
such a courage that defied the power of 
sin and Satan, that scorned difficulties, 
was careless of the case of custom, that 
dared indulge in justifiable irregularities 
in the way of method, in order that Christ 
could be brought to men. We need a new 
baptism of that sort of evangelistic cour- 
age in order to conquer. A triumphant 
evangelism demands an evangelistic con- 
secration that will give its all to win for 
Christ; no sacrifice too costly; no labor 
too exhausting; no price too great. Are 
not "blood'^ and "blessing'^ synonymous 
in root meaning? Then it follows, no 
blood, no blessing. Machinery, methods, 
meetings ; these are not to be discredited ; 
but men — evangelistic men — men with an 
evangelistic conscience, men with evangel- 
istic confidence, men with evangelistic 

X 



INTEODUCTION 

courage, men with evangelistic consecra- 
tion ; only men like this can contribute to 
evangelistic conquest. 

This book will help to make such 
evangelistic men. Its author has proved 
these principles and precepts in practice 
as a pastor, presiding elder and evangel- 
ist. Its translation into the life of the 
ministry and laity of Methodism will 
make an evangelistic Church worthy of 
the name. It is a worthy companion of 
"The Evangelistic Awakening" and these 
companion volumes in the hands of the 
younger ministry whose spirit shall be 
that of the Methodist fathers meeting 
triumphantly the vexing problems of the 
modern pastor. 

T. S. Henderson. 



XI 



CHAPTER I 

THE EVANGELISTIC SITUATION 

Every movement in Christian history 
that has made more than a ripple upon the 
world's life has been met with some per- 
plexing and stubborn problems that have 
only been solved by intense devotion to 
great fundamental principles. When the 
Christian Church is calm and pacific, has 
no serious misgivings nor difficult prob- 
lems, we are not to esteem it necessarily 
a sign of genuine prosperity ; it is quite as 
likely to be an indication of stagnation, if 
not of spiritual death. That this strenu- 
ous and restless age has at last found some 
corresponding restlessness and urgency 
in the Church of Christ is one of the most 
hopeful signs of our day. That there is an 
evangelistic awakening throughout the 
church, and that this awakening is wide- 
spread and deep enough to have laid hold 
upon the strongest minds and stirred the 
most vital forces, there can be no question. 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

But we must not mistake an evangelis- 
tic awakening for a real regenerative and 
reconstructive revival of religion. The 
awakening, as vital as it is, is only pre- 
liminary to the revival; but it is a most 
hopeful sign of the thoroughness of the re- 
vival toward which the church is moving 
that such a general awakening precedes it. 
The weakness of many past revivals, and 
the general inefficiency of all merely local 
and temporary revivals, is that they have 
not been preceded by any thorough evan- 
gelistic awakening. The gradual coming 
of this awakening should not be con- 
sidered a misfortune; it gives time to set 
the Christian household in order, so that 
serious reaction mav not follow, and that 
the constructive process may achieve the 
largest permanent results looking toward 
a continuous evangelism. 

It is the gradual character of this awak- 
ening that has led the church to face the 
most difficult and stubborn evangelistic 
problems of her history. These problems 
to many people are almost staggering. 



THE EVANGELISTIC SITUATION 

and they cannot see any real sign of an 
awakening, much less a revival of religion. 
But the very fact that the problems have 
come to the surface, are lifting them- 
selves, and standing like great mountain 
barriers in the path of the church, is the 
most assuring sign that the church is wak- 
ing up to a serious consideration of her 
mission. 

This widespread and deep movement is 
the more significant because it grows out 
of an important admission, namely, that 
so serious is the situation in numberless 
churches and communities where merely 
"holding the fort'' has failed to sustain 
the strength of the church, that this has 
led the churches to see that if they are to 
keep to their ideals as institutions, they 
must move out and "rescue the perishing'' 
or cease to hold to their evangelistic prin- 
ciples. The time has arrived now for the 
church not merely to make a theoretical 
study of these problems, but to face them 
with heroic determination to adjust itself 
to meet the emergency, though the solu- 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

tion of these involve the absolute recon- 
struction of the policy of the church and 
a genuine renewal of its spirit. 

Indicative Problems 
It is not within the province of this 
discussion to enter extensively into the 
specific problems that face the church and 
offer some particular remedy for them; 
we simply call attention to two stubborn 
conditions before the church today as il- 
lustrations and indications of the general 
situation. 

The Problem of Alienation 
The great labor and other organizations 
of men embracing so largely the common 
people (of the world) who ^^heard Jesus 
gladly/^ are alienated from the church; 
and nearly all the rank and file of men 
outside of those interested in the great 
corporations of industry and commerce 
are more or less in sympathy with them. 
We are not now offering any excuse for 
the attitude these men sustain toward or- 
ganized Christianity; we have little sym- 



THE EVANGELISTIC SITUATION 

pathy with much of their policy, for their 
leaders are in many instances making 
this an excuse behind which to hide, and 
often a club with which to strike at heads 
of corporations who chance to be mem- 
bers of the Christian Church, Neverthe- 
less, the stubborn fact stands forth, 
namely, that millions of accumulations, 
even though large beneficence flow from 
them, millions of wealth with gifts that 
involve no sacrifice, will never be made to 
appear consistent with membership in the 
Christian Church; and it is clearly ap- 
parent that a church of five hundred mil- 
lionaires would be infinitely less efficient 
in saving this world than a church of five 
hundred workingmen. 

Only recently there was instituted in 
one of our large cities an evangelistic 
movement with the union of all the 
churches of a great denomination. In 
due time the meetings shifted from a 
church of the so-called middle class, to the 
most fashionable church in the city — a 
church of millionaires in considerable 

5 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

numbers. The newspapers, with their 
slight ability to detect the basal and vital 
things about such movements, neverthe- 
less, were led to comment extendedly upon 
what would be done with a revival move- 
ment in a church constituted chiefly of 
such people; and when, in keeping with the 
custom, the organization in the new field 
was effected and these (Wall Street) men 
were given lists of names of persons to 
confer with respecting their religious wel- 
fare, one could but discern a vein of hu- 
mor beneath the report, as though such a 
policy were nearly ridiculous ; not because 
these were not respectable citizens, repu- 
table churchmen, and perhaps even con- 
sistent Christians, but because this pic- 
ture of wealth and luxury placed over 
against the gospel of Him who ^^had not 
where to lay his head,'^ who "was de- 
spised and rejected of men/^ who "could 
not save himself and others,'^ who went 
to the cross and died that men might live, 
and committed to his disciples this kind 
of gospel mission, to be carried out by 



THE EVANGELISTIC SITUATION 

this kind of spirit, this as the theme and 
appeal of the evangelist in charge, as of 
every true evangelist, made these con- 
ditions and forces seem little less than 
ridiculous as a means of a revival move- 
ment to save the community. 

This is only an intimation; there are 
vast throngs of people in various depart- 
ments of life today who more or less con- 
scientiously stand aloof from all evangel- 
izing efforts because of the apparent in- 
consistency between the self-sacrificing 
character of the theme of the preacher and 
the easygoing, self-indulgent practice of 
the people. 

The Problem of Indifference 

Infinitely more stubborn is the problem 
of indifference, refusing utterly to be dis- 
turbed by what we commonly call evan- 
gelistic or revival forces. This condition 
is almost universal ; the prejudice against 
spectacular evangelism is being worn 
away, but indifference still rests like a 
great paralysis upon the mass of people 
7 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

who are not Christians. Except in rare 
eases, where conditions are traditionally 
peculiar as in isolated communities, or 
where some spiritual cyclone (if such it 
is) sweeps down upon an entire com- 
munity under very unusual leadership, 
the average evangelistic effort, whether 
by local or imported leadership, whether 
by ordinary or extraordinary forces, 
scarcely touches the great mass of uncon- 
verted people. We have observed these 
conditions carefully, and note that in 
nearly all instances, whether congrega- 
tions are large or small, the percentage of 
unconverted or nonprofessing Christians 
is infinitely meager. We were in a church 
recently which was crowded with, perhaps, 
twelve hundred people, where the meet- 
ing had been in progress several weeks 
under the leadership of a noted evan- 
gelist, and when the invitation was given 
it was evident that there were not fifty 
persons present who did not belong to 
some Christian church. Not long since 
we heard one of the most world-renowned 



THE EVANGELISTIC SITUATION 

evangelists address on Sunday afternoon 
a congregation of men that filled every sit- 
ting of a great church, not less than one 
thousand in number, and from every in- 
dication there were not twenty-five non- 
Christian men in that vast audience. The 
assembly of these great congregations, and 
especially this latter, is a very hopeful 
indication so far as a general awakening 
in the church is concerned, but it does not 
encourage us with respect to reaching the 
great unconverted throng. Most eloquent, 
earnest, and attractive preaching, and 
music that would often draw the people 
of the world to some other than a reli- 
gious place, do not get even a considera- 
tion from the mass; and most extrava- 
gantly organized efforts of evangelistic 
campaigning rarely phase the situation. 



CHAPTER II 

The Church Facing the Emergency 

We are confident that there will be no 
solution to this problem from the pen or 
lips, or by a display of the policy of any 
man or men who attempt it by the way 
of method. It is clear that the most ex- 
pert evangelists, and the keenest and most 
earnest specialists, who place chief em- 
phasis upon plans and methods cannot be 
sure of success in demonstration of their 
own policies, for most successful evangel- 
ists frequently fail in certain places, and 
succeed in many others only after they 
have taken time for the actual generation 
of evangelistic conditions. 

Forcing Eesults Must Give Way to 
Generating Conditions 

We must turn our attention to the gen- 
eration of evangelistic conditions and the 
preparation for a revival by means of 

these conditions. This is infinitely more 
io 



PACING THE EMEEGENCY 

important than the direct attempt to 
create revivals. Right conditions will 
bring revivals, and it is certain that re- 
vivals which grow out of conditions that 
prevail through preparation, have two 
great advantages: they are sure to be 
more genuine, because more spontaneous ; 
and bound to be less reactionary, because 
their own conditions sustain them and 
mature their fruits. The preparation for 
the revival is, therefore, to be studied with 
greater care than the exercises or activities 
by which the tangible results are gathered. 
The far-reaching and abiding character 
of the revival is chiefly in preparatory con- 
ditions; marked examples of this are the 
wonderful and sweeping revivals occurring 
under the leadership of Mr. Sunday. The 
extensive preparation for his meetings be- 
comes so all-absorbing for weeks before, 
as to stir the whole community, and make 
him and his movement by far the biggest 
thing on hand, and, perhaps, the greatest 
event the community has ever known. 

This gives great force of religious concen- 
II 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

tration, and when his work is begun so 
thoroughly are all the people awake to it 
that the wires are laid to every man, 
woman, and child in the community, and 
everything becomes ablaze at once. 

The great demand of the present hour 
is the adoption of some fundamental prin- 
ciple and policy that will be productive 
of results through any earnest leadership 
and cooperation; some process that will 
bring with it, and leave behind it, a truly 
sensitized evangelistic atmosphere. 

The Gospel Has Not Lost Its Power 

It is questioned by many in these days 
whether the gospel has not lost its power ; 
and it is even, with very forcible argu- 
ment and illustration, affirmed by others 
that it has. These statements are made 
because in many instances the church has 
lost its power; and this is so true that a 
real evangelistic appeal will often be met 
with greater response apart from any 
church organization than in connection 
with it. 

12 



FACING THE EMERGENCY 

Jesus could not do mighty works in 
certain places in his day because of the 
people's unbelief. He cannot do mighty 
works in this day through his church while 
that church is a barrier rather than a bul- 
wark to faith, generating obstructive un- 
belief, even though, when reduced to the 
last analysis, it is unbelief in the church 
rather than in the Christ. 

The gospel has not lost its power, but 
the manifestations of that power today 
are not in proven revelations and miracles 
of grace that reveal what he did for us 
long ago but what he inspires us to do for 
others today. This is not assuming that 
all the blame for the absence of a genuine 
and forceful evangelistic life in the church 
is due to the presence of wealth and lux- 
ury, that wealthy people are more selfish 
necessarily than others ; but it is an indi- 
cation that the evangelistic principle and 
spirit will not thrive until the church re- 
news its conception of its mission, begins 
to revolutionize its spirit by the cultiva- 
tion of the heroic and self-sacrificing, by 
13 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

which alone it can fulfill this mission, 
either among rich or poor, and by the 
adoption of which policy it will speedily 
remove the barriers of nnbelief and find 
itself clothed with the power of the Christ 
when it goes forth in the spirit of the 
Christ. 

A LiFB-GiviNG Gospel Demands a Life- 
Saving Church 

Because of its peculiar mission the 
Christian Church occupies a position alto- 
gether unique, and has no correspondence 
in any other form of organization. There 
have been, and are now, a great many 
worthy and highly commendable institu- 
tions whose mission to the world is such 
that we can accord them our sympathy, 
if not support. But there is no institu- 
tion in this world that occupies the place 
held by the Christian Church, for beneath 
every other organization there is more or 
less the element of selfishness, the appeal 
of mutual helpfulness, if not of personal 
reward; but the Church of Christ invites 
men to its altars and its fellowship, en- 
14 



FACING THE EMERGENCY 

lists them in its activities, without any 
appeal whatever to self; invited to join 
other institutions, men urge upon you 
their advantages and benefits, but, invited 
to unite in the discipleship of Jesus, the 
appeal is not what you will get out of it, 
but what you can put into it. It is true 
that there are advantages accruing to 
men in the Christian Church that might 
well appeal to man's higher self, but they 
are not to be placed over against a man's 
time, energy, and gifts as a means of in- 
ducement. The world is well aware that 
this is the theoretical position occupied 
by the Christian Church, and they have a 
right to expect some reasonable corre- 
spondence in the life of the church. 

All along our shores are life-saving sta- 
tions, with heroic men trained to be res- 
cuers of human lives. What storm-tossed 
sailor baffling with the waves does not feel 
a degree of safety because of those who 
are ready to risk their lives in his behalf? 

The Christian Church is expected to 

stand for this in a moral and spiritual 

15 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

sense and its men and women trained in 
this service are useless unless they possess 
heroic qualities that make them forget 
themselves in the interest of those to be 
rescued. To the interest of others all other 
things give way; if they have duties and 
pleasures, they are always in subjection 
to the supreme end to which they have 
given their lives. If the Christian Church 
is to continue to sing ^^Eescue the perish- 
ing/' with any hope of inspiring confi- 
dence upon the part of a lost world, it will 
have to enter into this service with more 
genuine heroism, and with a deeper spirit 
of self -sacrifice. 

Since writing these last lines my eyes 
have fallen on the evening paper, which 
announces the invention or perfection of 
a new instrument for the saving of life. 
The invention does away with all necessity 
for lifeboats, and while it greatly in- 
creases the chance of rescue it reduces in 
the same degree the peril and sacrifice 
heretofore necessary upon the part of life- 
saving crews. The modern world is ex- 
i6 



FACING THE EMERGENCY 

tremely alert in seeking to reduce the 
perils of mortality, and it is equally awake 
to the reduction of risks, sacrifice, and 
costly service necessary to these accom- 
plishments. It is high time that the 
Christian Church become imbued with the 
same ambition to save the immortal. 

But we must not drift into the error 
so natural to these days of increasing com- 
forts and reduction of hardships, and as- 
sume that by patent plans and transfer of 
burdens from shoulders to machines we 
can also transfer the burden of soul-sav- 
ing from our hearts and lives to any pat- 
ent evangelistic method, or any general 
church organization which we support, 
but into which there goes little of our 
heart's blood. 

There is no substitute in God's economy 
for self-sacrifice in saving the world. This 
unalterable law is in our own interest as 
well as those for whom we toil, for except 
we give our lives away we cannot save 
them. It is to many amazing that the peo- 
ple about us are not more interested in 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

religious things, seem not even to care for 
their own souFs welfare; but so long as 
the vital matters of the Christian Church 
rest so lightly upon the hearts of Christ's 
followers, we need not expect the world to 
be greatly moved; so long as Christians 
can subordinate religious work to all 
other matters, giving everything else first 
place, there can be no genuine evangelistic 
movement ; until first things in theory and 
in creed are made first things in devo- 
tion, until things we claim to be worth 
most, and most significant to the world, 
are purchased and paid for with a larger 
degree of personal sacrifice, we shall not 
see the kindling of a great revival spirit 
throughout the church. 

Return to First Principles 

The wonderful inventions, discoveries, 
and developments of modern science in 
the last half century, together with the 
fact that the church no longer sustains 
an antagonistic, nor even doubtful atti- 
tude toward this, but rather rejoices in 
i8 



FACING THE EMERGENCY 

every great development, has led the 
church quite naturally to feel that it must 
look to the novel for elements of success. 
But after failing to find any relief of its 
evangelistic situation in the direction of 
modernism, it is now almost universally 
reverting to the "old-fashioned revival'^ 
and trying to find the secret there. But 
in this its discoveries of evangelistic po- 
tentialities are chiefly peculiar to the age 
and conditions, and not necessarily funda- 
mental or capable of universal and con- 
tinuous efllciency. The church must look 
back still farther, and enter into a study 
of conditions obtaining before any reli- 
gious conventionalities had arisen, and 
discover the plain, unincumbered princi- 
ples of religious power by which this 
world first felt the regenerating force of 
the great evangel and the great evangel- 
izers. We cannot believe that these prin- 
ciples put into the hands of peasant 
apostles, and used so mightily, are beyond 
the reach of the rank and file of the 

Church of Christ today. 
19 



CHAPTER III 

The Great Commission Renewed 

Christ laid a great commission upon the 
hearts of his disciples; gradually, but 
surely, he led them as they sat at his feet 
into the vision of the length, breadth, 
height, and depth of the great task that 
was to be assigned them ; and at the same 
time he was binding them in a fellowship 
of loyalty to himself that would commit 
them to any kind of service, no matter 
how much it cost. Little did they under- 
stand how large a contract lay before 
them in the ever-increasing meaning of 
discipleship ; but by and by they came 
where they were reasonably ready for the 
burden of that great commission, and from 
the time he stood over against them, to say 
to them that their days of training were 
over, their visible Teacher and Leader 
was to retire, and they were to go out now 
to try their experience, their faith, their 
fortitude, and to do "greater works'^ even 

20 



i 



GREAT COMMISSION RENEWED 

than he did, the significance of it began 
to dawn upon their consciousness, and 
their hearts throbbed beneath the biggest 
burden ever assumed by mortal man. 

Jesus, anxious that this commission 
should rest heavily upon their hearts, 
counseled them to tarry in the quiet of the 
Jerusalem chamber, until it grew into all 
its proportions; and the more it grew 
upon them, the more they felt the need 
of the divine power which they were to 
receive. They were not endued with power 
from on high, until they were fully im- 
hued with the sense of their commission. 
From this time on nothing is more evi- 
dent than the tremendous pressure under 
which these disciples labored. Reading 
the record of their movements, you feel 
that they are under the spell of a great ob- 
ligation, and that they felt not simply its 
dignity, but its urgency; they had heard 
him say, "As the Father hath sent me, 
even so send I you,^' and as they reflected 
upon the meaning of their Lord's mission 
of sacrifice, their devotion to him and his 

21 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

purpose grew into a burning passion, until 
nothing could withstand it. This great 
declaration to "go and disciple the na- 
tions'' lay hold of them; there was never 
any uncertainty as to the specific mission 
upon which they were sent ; their mission 
was no vague, indefinite program ; speedily 
the world rolled in upon their hearts, 
and they never once by any path of 
ease or compromise attempted to unload 
that burden. Their movements, as here 
recorded, with a simplicity of organiza- 
tion and great personal earnestness, stand 
in wide contrast over against the aims and 
efforts of organized Christianity as it ap- 
pears in history. 

The church of today must hear and ac- 
cept anew the divine commission to save 
the world. 

The great problem before the ministry 
and the evangelistic leadership is the lack 
of a supreme sense of the Christian com- 
mission. The saving of the world does 
not rest heavily upon the hearts of the 
Christian discipleship of today; and let 

22 



GEEAT COMMISSION EENEWED 

us not think that by multiplying services, 
or devising new ways and means we can 
ever get it upon their hearts. Nor is there 
any hope of a divine power that will 
startle the world in pentecostal-like fash- 
ion until something else is accomplished 
in the way of preparation for that power. 
There will be no general manifestation 
of peculiar power in the Christian Church 
until there is a larger and deeper sense 
of the need of that power because the 
scope and weight of the Christian commis- 
sion has taken an awful grip upon the 
heart of the church. The imbuement of 
this commission in an all-absorbing man- 
ner must precede the endowment of power 
from on high. 

When God's people are ready "is the 
day of his power'' ; Christian people can- 
not expect anything like a great spiritual 
movement while their lives are so lack- 
ing in what corresponds to the meaning 
of discipleship as outlined by the Mas- 
ter, and as it laid hold of those men of 
old. 

2.3 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

DisciPLESHiP Needs Eeinterpretation 

The first great evangelistic essential to- 
day is a reinterpretation of Christian dis- 
cipleship. Two things have greatly modi- 
fled, if not demoralized, the evangelistic 
life of the church through all the ages. 
These have not been defined in every age 
in exactly the same terms, but they have 
stood for the same things. 

The first is the extreme emphasis upon 
the so-called ^^scheme of redemption," 
which has engaged the thought of the 
church to such an extent that in almost 
every period the brightest minds and 
strongest personalities in leadership have 
been taken up with either setting forth 
or defending this scheme rather than in 
appealing to men to accept Christ and find 
out the doctrine. The other has been the 
unconscious magnifying of the organiza- 
tions of Christianity and the increasing 
feeling that method and machinery would 
save the world. The former transfers all 

responsibility back to God after the 
24 



GREAT COMMISSION RENEWED 

mere presentation of the lormula; the 
other transfers it to a machine, and the 
only personal responsibility is to find the 
best machine, keep it in best repair, and 
work it for all it is worth. Both tend to 
reduce the personal equation in disciple- 
ship and service to the very minimum. 
The absence of this vital element has be- 
come so evident in these latter days that 
great emphasis is being laid upon "per- 
sonal evangelism'^; and this is the point 
for emphasis, if we do not make the mis- 
take of ringing the changes on a term be- 
hind which there is little meaning. 

We are in danger of committing the 
blunder of talking and urging personal 
evangelism, with the idea of some method, 
some kind of harness one puts on, by 
which personal work is made effective; 
or of emphasizing the necessity of a per- 
sonal consecration that amounts to only 
a passive submission to the divine power 
which would make men mere automatons ; 
this construction is too frequently put 
upon the long tarrying in the upper room 

25 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

at Jerusalem and hypnotic power of the 
supernatural believed to accompany it. 

We need a revival of personal evangel- 
ism, but we need it as the result of a rein- 
terpretation of Christian discipleship. It 
needs to be the direct product of those 
elements which made these disciples such 
mighty personal forces in the kingdom; 
it must grow out of an unselfish sur- 
render to Jesus Christ and a cultured de- 
votion to him, accompanied by that great 
sense of the disciple's commission that 
rested upon their hearts long ago. 

"Back to Christ^^ 

^^Back to Christ'^ is no longer a novelty 
in theological dictum; it is almost stale 
with the commonest use of men, who little 
apprehended its significance, and more so 
with others, who only ring the changes 
on it as a new ideal. But "back to Christ'' 
is a most important slogan, and the evan- 
gelistic church and ministry ought to take 
it from the hands of those who have made 

no use of it except as a high-sounding 

26 



GEEAT COMMISSION RENEWED 

term of liberalism and make it the slogan 
of our evangelistic call. "Back to Christ/^ 
not to a Christ who was a beautiful ideal 
of life, character, and teaching only ; but 
back to a Christ whose life was one of 
sacrifice, who could not save himself and 
save others, who waded through gardens 
of sorrow and found the common pores of 
his flesh the only safety valves for his 
burdened heart, and who committed his 
disciples to the same course, led them to 
his mount of vision, and sent them out 
Math his passion "to seek and to save/^ 

Whether in the church at large, or the 
individual church, over which we chance 
to have direction, and to w^hich we minis- 
ter, the only means of creating such con- 
ditions and spirit will be by returning to 
the first principles of discipleship, and 
leading the Christians of today, as did the 
Master long ago, step by step, until they 
actually come to have a genuine vision of 
discipleship and become possessed of the 
original passion that accompanies it. Pen- 
tecost will be repeated with infinitely 
27 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

greater force than of old when this larger 
world of today is allowed to press upon 
the hearts of his disciples — disciples who 
have a corresponding vision of the great- 
ness of their task, in keeping with the in- 
creased greatness of the world. 

At His Feet 

It is clearly evident that much larger 
consideration must be given to the ele- 
ment of time, and the preparation that 
time alone can bring. Not that time is 
necessary with God, but time is necessary 
for men, else God would not have taken it 
as he has in preparation for his move- 
ments among men. Revivals may come 
here and there; indeed, they are bound to 
come by the devotion that accompanies 
this preparation but they are not likely to 
be widespread, nor have the depth desired ; 
much less are they likely to furnish the 
conditions for continuous evangelism. 

There must be repeated that which was 
carried out in the plan of Jesus; those 

disciples were utterly unable at first to 

28 



GREAT COMMISSION RENEWED 

be impressed with the meaning of his 
mission and their mission. Jewish form- 
alism and nominalism had made them al- 
most imperturbable to his teaching, and 
it was only little by little that he forced 
this vision upon them. Wise and tactful, 
yet never compromising, he kept them face 
to face with the great ideal ; and they were 
scarcely aware of the high road of vision 
over which he was leading them until at 
last it broke in upon their consciousness. 
The church must return to discipleship 
and sit again at the feet of Jesus. The 
ministry must to the very best of its 
ability keep the disciples face to face with 
the vital things of their mission, and 
wisely and skillfully lead them from the 
view of Christianity that is merely formal 
and nominal to the real vision of a self- 
sacrificing discipleship, and give to them, 
amid their various perplexing and com- 
promising principles and policies, the real 
vision, such as at last dawned upon those 
of old ere the Master startled them with 

the great commission. 
29 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

^^In His Steps" 

No single incident in the last two dec- 
ades has more widely stirred the Chris- 
tian world than the publication of that 
little simple book, In His Steps. It 
brought the church so vividly face to face 
with what discipleship means, and there 
was no getting away from its simple but 
fundamental principles. It restored to 
the church the long-obscured vision of 
Christ and his disciples facing their task. 
Had the teaching of that little book been 
followed, had the ministry had the cour- 
age of their conviction, had greed, selfish- 
ness, and pride not hedged the church 
from pursuing the course of its vision, 
we should have had in due time as the 
result the greatest revival this country has 
ever known. It will require more than a 
single book, more than a single sermon, 
or series of sermons, to bring about 
deep and far-reaching revival conditions. 
Many books and sermons, with line upon 

line, sound, tolerant, kind, but emphatic 
30 



GREAT COMMISSION RENEWED 

and forceful, setting forth the only ground 
of Christian discipleship, will, if persist- 
ently followed, lead the church, as the 
Master did his disciples, to the point of 
vision where possibly the number may be 
temporarily reduced, but they that are 
left will be to the world of today what 
that little band of old was to the great, 
vile, and vulgar Roman empire. 

All this will involve great problems, 
which demand the revision and recon- 
struction of the whole Christian creed 
touching our social, civic, and commercial 
life; and it will take time to bring men, 
where they are ready at the cost of all, to 
stick to the essentials of the great Chris- 
tian program. 

The Upper Room 

That it is necessary that a great spirit- 
ual power shall come upon the church in 
order to bring about large results no one 
questions ; that this power is just as avail- 
able now as ever few, perhaps, doubt; 

but that this power will manifest itself 
31 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

in any manner defined by previous ex- 
pressions is neither certain nor neces- 
sary ; much less is it likely that precisely 
the same passive waiting in any upper 
room will bring it down. Have not the 
essentials of Pentecost, or of its accom- 
panying spiritual power, been miscon- 
strued, and are we not likely to "tarry" 
under a misapprehension? What was 
vital to that day of Pentecost? It was not 
a particular upper room, nor a long wait 
for God to answer, so far as God was con- 
cerned. The disciples had now come into 
full possession of their commission; it 
was no longer a mere suggestion of their 
Master but a great and supreme obliga- 
tion ; it involved, as they had begun to 
see, absolute loyalty to their Lord in the 
face of conditions most exacting; this 
great and far-reaching commission must 
not merely flash upon them and create a 
temporary impulse, start a hurried move- 
ment for which no sufficient preparation 
had been made to sustain and carry to 

its consummation. This was to be a con- 
32 



I 



GREAT COMMISSION RENEWED 

tinuous movement, a world enterprise; 
to it, they were committed for life, and 
at whatever cost. But they were human 
and must have time in the quiet of that 
upper room to pray, to talk with one an- 
other, to reflect upon the meaning of it 
all, until this commission had settled 
down upon them and they became thor- 
oughly imbued with its wide and far- 
reaching significance, and were ready, at 
whatever cost, to commit themselves to 
carrying it out ; then there moved out into 
the old Roman empire the most myste- 
rious and irresistible company of men 
that ever attempted to turn this world up- 
side down. 

Pov^ER FOR Service 

Let us understand that waiting before 
God in prayer to secure a power by which 
things are easily and speedily done, the 
mere acceptance and accordance with a 
so-called doctrine of Pentecost, will never 
bring this about. It will be, when the 
disciples have been led to see the greatness 

33 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

of their commission, the urgency of the 
whitening harvest, and the Master at 
whose feet they have sat, looking down 
appealingly for loyalty. When the great 
commission, sounding the very depths of 
their souls, saturates their life and fills 
all their horizon, so that power is neces- 
sary because something must be done, and 
power is ready because they are ready 
to use it, when this has been reached in 
Christian discipleship, there will be rea- 
son to hope for an unusual manifesta- 
tion of divine power. 

Thomas Aquinas was once in the pres- 
ence of the Pope when he was count- 
ing a large pile of gold. "Thomas,'^ said 
the Pope, "the church can no longer say 
^Silver and gold have I none^ ; '^ to which 
Thomas replied : "No, nor can she longer 
say, ^In the name of Jesus of Nazareth 
rise up and walk.^ ^' Here is a vast range 
of application for today. The church has 
lost its power, or, better, perhaps, the 
modern church has rarely come into pos- 
session of that power. Its path has been, 

34 



GREAT COMMISSION RENEWED 

for the most part, one of ease and luxury ; 
discipleship has not been tested ; there has 
grown up a notion that men can save 
themselves by a mere formal consent to 
Christianity, and save others by a contri- 
bution of money, time, or energy that 
never drew a pang from their souls, or a 
drop of blood from their hearts. The 
church, as in the time of Thomas Aquinas, 
believes tremendously in the cross, though 
with wider interpretation of its meaning; 
in the cross as a great fact in history 
*^once for all,'' as a beautiful symbol and 
a forceful suggestion of a kind benefi- 
cence that expresses itself in the signifi- 
cant but very general and high-sounding 
terms of altruism; but it knows little 
about a cross that has in it jagged nails, 
which suggest the real pain to which men 
must yield their lives if they, too, would 
be living disciples linked with their Lord 
in saving the world. 

When the living wires of human person- 
alities in the discipleship of Jesus are 
laid bare for his service, there will be an 

35 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

installation of divine energy, the voltage 
of which will be sufficient to shock this 
old world as no Pentecost in history has 
ever done. 



36 



CHAPTER IV 

The Evangelistic Attitude^ or the 

Christian Vision of, the 

Prodigal World 

In that remarkable little book, The Pas- 
sion For Souls, Mr. Jowett has set forth 
this principle with great force. With 
Paul, he holds that we are to ^^flll up that 
which is behind of the affliction of Christ.'' 
^^Are we in this succession? Does the 
cry of the world's need pierce the heart 
and ring even through the fabric of our 
dreams? Do we ^flll up' our Lord's suf- 
fering with our own sufferings? Here 
in my newspaper is a long casualty list 
from the seat of war; a column of the 
crimes of my city ; or, here is a paragraph 
telling me about some massacres in 
China.'^ 

How does this take hold of us, or does 
it take hold of us at all? If not, then there 
is something wrong with our attitude; 

something wrong with our Christian vi- 

Z7 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

sion. Paul, more than anyone before or 
since, interpreted and incarnated the atti- 
tude of his Lord, stood side by side with 
the Christ in the vision of the world. He 
said, ^Tor me to live is Christ," and no 
one has ever disputed it, because through 
all those years the record of his life attests 
it. 

The Condescending Loed 

Paul laid supreme emphasis upon the 
condescension of Jesus; out of his great 
souPs vision came that picture of him who 
^^though rich became poor,'^ and so did he 
dwell upon this that he actually imbibed, 
yes, incorporated it into his own life; to 
him there was nothing in which to glory 
save the cross, which was the culmination 
of that unparalleled condescension. 

One cannot read PauFs words without 
feeling that in the background of the 
vision that produced them, Jesus^s con- 
descension was supreme. Paul could not 
get away from the vision of him ^S^ho 
counted not his life dear unto himself^; 

"who died, the just for the unjust," and 

38 



THE EVANGELISTIC ATTITUDE 

^^bore our sins in his body upon the tree.'' 
Paul understood that this condescension 
of Jesus Christ was a spontaneous con- 
descension ; in other words, that it was a 
^^passion.'' We have too often lost the 
meaning of that term "the passion of 
Christ'' ; it is covered up in an ecclesiasti- 
cal frame known as "Holy Week." There 
was a "Holy Week" in the calendar of 
Jesus's life; it contained the incidents, 
the outward vision, the physical appear- 
ances that alone could be recorded. But 
if Paul is right, the divine passion dates 
far back in the ages — behind the angels' 
song and the Bethlehem cradle ; it is away 
back beyond the prophet's vision of that 
day, "when there was no eye to pity and 
no arm to save" ; back behind the councils 
of grief, that fashioned the purpose which 
brought forth that supreme declaration 
of the divine passion, "God so loved the 
world." It was the divine vision of a lost 
world that kindled the passion and re- 
newed it again and again in the life of 
Jesus, until the world's salvation was pro- 

39 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

vided in the hour of his finished work 
upon the cross. Now and then there ap- 
pears in the life of Christ a little revela- 
tion of what it was that reinforced his pur- 
pose to go to the cross, and intensified 
that purpose into a passion. Once He 
stood overlooking Jerusalem, and the pa- 
thetic lamentation that escaped his lips 
suggests his vision; again he saw the 
young ruler turn away, and was sad; 
again he bent over lost humanity beside 
Samaria's well, and could not get away 
until he had lifted that poor woman into 
life. It was this that made him fight to 
the bitter end in the wilderness, and made 
the hour in Gethsemane wakeful with 
agony. It was the recurring vision of the 
lost world that sent him, finally, to the 

cross. 

The Compassionate Christ 

Not until we have entered into the 
vision of our Christ concerning the world, 
is there in us enough deep and unfailing 
compassion to qualify us for this great 

work of drawing men to God. Human 

40 



THE EVANGELISTIC ATTITUDE 

prejudices are deep and strong; intoler- 
ance is a hard thing to overcome; it is 
deeply intrenched in our nature. You 
have a little glimpse of Paul, the bigot, 
Paul the persecutor, full of intolerance 
before his conversion; you have enough 
evidence in the expression of his dispo- 
sition cropping out here and there through 
his Christian life to see what he would 
have been but for that revolutionizing 
power that turned him about, and kept 
control of his life all the while. When we 
realize how thoroughly this great, hard- 
headed, stout-hearted man came to be un- 
der the spell of such a passion we can 
account for it only because, again and 
again, he is found going over in his 
thought and trying to reproduce in his 
life the feelings and impulses of his con- 
descending Lord. Whenever Jesus looked 
men in the face he had compassion on 
them; this statement is made concerning 
his vision of the multitude, and we can 
read it everywhere between the lines. We 
cannot think of Christ facing lost men 
41 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

without a feeling of compassion. The in- 
dividual might be worthy of severest con- 
demnation, but he said, "Neither do I 
condemn thee/^ The multitude might be 
a worthless, low-lived throng, but to him 
they were "as sheep without a shepherd/^ 
What infinite compassion ! 

Unless we are possessed of this vision, 
we shall find ourselves often growing in- 
tolerant; intolerant because folks cannot 
be led to see eye to eye with us ; intolerant 
because they will not act immediately in 
perfect harmony with our well-matured 
conceptions of conduct. Nothing more 
thoroughly disqualifies us for this work 
we face, the very first demand for which 
is the "charity that covers a multitude of 
sins/^ Only as this vision of a conde- 
scending and compassionate Lord is ours 
can we with Paul be "all things to all 
men^' for the sake of winning them. How 
many souls have been driven away and 
hardened, how many communities today 
cannot be appealed to evangelistically, be- 
cause of the arbitrary, intolerant, unyield- 
42 



THE EVANGELISTIC ATTITUDE 

ing methods of men in such services! 
Many very good men have blocked their 
own way, and the way of others, for years, 
to whole communities, by their spirit of 
intolerance; they have failed to travel 
with Paul the road of a condescending 
Christ, until, like him, they could be all 
things to all men in order to save them. 

Only as we have this vision can we be 
possessed of 

The Optimism of Jesus 

that will make us successful in reaching 
and saving a lost world. There is no ques- 
tion but that the character of mediaeval 
theology, with its shadows reaching well 
on down to this age, has had much to do 
with closing up the fountains of compas- 
sion and giving religious activity a cold 
and mechanical caste, w^hich does not ac- 
cord with the fundamental spirit of Jesus, 
so necessary with which to reach the 
world. A mere dogmatic appeal has little 
force in these days ; it savors too much of 
bigotry and intolerance, and does not meet 

43 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

even with the response of attention. When 
a man makes his boast that he preached 
on hell with great pleasure there is some- 
thing wrong with his point of view, and 
more vitally still with his heart's attitude 
toward a lost world. That these things 
are vital to gospel preaching there can be 
no question, but unless a man enters upon 
such a sermon as he would shrink from 
the garden of Gethsemane, he ought never 
to preach it. It has been said by some- 
one that "the tale of the divine pity was 
never yet believed from lips not filled with 
human pity.'' 

"The old idea of God's awful severity 
might do for the day when a poor man 
might be put in jail for a grocer's bill and 
his wife and children left to starve, when 
men walked the streets or toiled in the 
fields with their owner's mark branded 
upon their forehead. When men were 
harsh they looked for a harsh God. 
Luther, asked whether the blessed in 
heaven will not be saddened by seeing 
their dearest friends tortured in hell, an- 

44 



THE EVANGELISTIC ATTITUDE 

swered: "Not the least in the world.'' 
Jonathan Edwards declared that "the 
view of misery of the damned will double 
the ardor of love and gratitude of the 
saints in heaven/' Amid the uncertain- 
ties of this awful faith they sang the 
hymn which is called "Desperate Resolu- 
tion/' with its implied impeachment of 
the divine fidelity and compassion: 

Perhaps he will admit my plea, 
Perhaps will hear my prayer; 

But if I perish I will pray, 
And perish only there. 

What an alternative is suggested in these 
words, and how they measure the concep- 
tion of God! And yet our fathers sang 
this stanza with earnest zeal and it is still 
in the Hymnal. (Butler.) 

Thus mediaeval theology clings to this 
age, colors the vision and poisons the at- 
mosphere of many good and earnest Chris- 
tians, so that when their activities are put 
to the test, they are not capable of pro- 
ducing effect ; they are barred even from 
approach to men. 

45 



THE GREAT OOMMISSIOK 

Never before in human history were the 
great questions of how to save the world 
pressed upon us as now. The time was 
when men could shut themselves up from 
the world and utterly forget the ^^other 
half" ; amid such conditions as this a the- 
ology such as has been referred to could 
exist; such conditions made it possible 
for conscientious men to say, concerning 
not merely the heathen at a distance, but 
the heathen at hand: ^^God will convert 
them when he gets ready /^ But no such 
theology can survive the test of these days, 
when no man lives to himself ; he picks up 
a newspaper every morning, and gets a 
panoramic view of the tragedies of a sin- 
cursed world, and before such a vision no 
compassionless theology will survive. 

"The loveless do not see the truth of 
humanity. It is love that sees the wicked- 
ness of the city and weeps over it; it is 
love who sees the lingering beauty in a 
Mary Magdalene and yearns over if' 
(Jowett). It is never said of Jesus that 

when he looked over the citv he con- 

46 



THE EVANGELISTIC ATTITUDlS 

demned it; anyone can do that. It is in- 
finitely easier (though a contradiction) 
to preach an evangel of condemnation, 
because it does not demand a remedy; 
easier to bear ourselves with a spirit of 
intolerance toward men who do not read- 
ily respond to our appeal, than to preach 
a real evangel and bear ourselves as real 
evangelists, weeping over people for what 
they are and may be, until the heart bleeds 
and we feel something of Calvary's mean- 
ing, for "when we cease to bleed we cease 
to bless/^ 

In such a vision of the lost world are 
the possibilities of its salvation. "How 
many a heart has been revived and eman- 
cipated by knowing that somewhere else 
there was another heart moving toward it 
with the tenderness of a great love'' (Van 
Dyke). 

Robert Ingersoll was accustomed to say 
that "the gospel is not glad tidings of 
great joy but a message of gloom and sad- 
ness." Perhaps if Mr. Ingersoll had not 
been reared amid the atmosphere of such 
47 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

a gloomy and hopeless theology, he might 
never have revolted against the message 
of life. There is a harsh, rigid side to 
truth; it needs to be preached, but 
preached as a part of a great law of God 
which governs all men for good, and which 
is therefore inevitable rather than the 
wrath of a good God and loving Father, 
pouring itself out on disobedient chil- 
dren. 

If you want to make men believe, if you 
want to inspire them with faith in God, 
give them a vision of a God in whom 
they can believe. For in these days when 
so much emphasis is laid upon charity 
and sympathy, and when there are such 
manifestations of human benevolence, it 
is very difficult to inspire men with faith 
in any other kind of God than one of great 
pity and philanthropy, such as is repre- 
sented in these gracious lines — 



There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness 

of the sea, 
There's a kindness in his justice which is more than 

liberty. 

48 



THE EVANGELISTIC ATTITUDE 

For the love of God is broader than the measure of 

man's mind, 
And the heajt of the Eternal is most wonderfully 

kind. 

Appealing to Men 
Jesus everywhere recognized the higher 
self and appealed to it. We can scarcely 
understand how to such an extent there 
has grown up the condemnatory type of 
evangelistic preaching and spirit; it is 
not characteristic of Jesus. Only when 
he is in the presence of the pharisaical 
hypocrites, does he bear himself thus; 
everywhere else his message is in the 
spirit of this fundamental statement, ^^I 
came not to condemn the world but that 
the world through me might have life.'' 
And in spite of every temptation, because 
of the vile character of life before him, 
he held himself under the influence of this 
great principle of charity and compas- 
sion, recognizing everywhere the higher 
self, and throwing about life, in corre- 
spondence with his uttered appeal, a 
cheering, warming, faith-inspiring atmos- 
phere. 

49 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

There is wonderful power in the atmos- 
phere of personality ; such an atmosphere 
radiates from every individual; and that 
atmosphere is increased by the aggressive 
attitude assumed in evangelistic work. 
This atmosphere quite as much as any- 
thing else determines whether we shall 
make a favorable approach to men. This 
consideration has been widely overlooked 
by evangelistic workers ; they have seemed 
to think that the time, place, and con- 
dition of people, also the state of their 
own mind and spirit, had nothing to do 
with Christian service. Persons some- 
times remark, ^^Well, I did my duty, any- 
way; I cleared my skirts,^^ regardless of 
the state of mind in which the individual 
was left. Why will not Christian workers 
learn that this is not Christ^s ideal, nor 
even is it the common-sense wisdom of 
the world ; if they will analyze it, they 
may find that it is only the gratification 
of the sense of a false apprehension of 
what duty is. God can overrule the 

blunders, and he does, for we are all liable 
50 



THE EVANGELISTIC ATTITUDE 

to them; but not the persistent blunders 
that come from a bigoted and blind notion 
of duty which we have not sought to cor- 
rect. 

This is also vital touching the spirit of 
the evangelistic preacher. We cannot 
make our predominant note in preaching 
that of condemnation without cultivating 
a spirit of intolerance, which frequently 
develops into a harsh and unkind spirit. 
And this grows upon us while we are al- 
most entirely unconscious of it ; our tones 
are lacking in kindness, our sentences be- 
come keen and rasping, and all of this 
tends not only toward an atmosphere cold, 
chilling, and offensive, but it tends toward 
pessimism upon our part, and pessimism 
is an absolute disqualification for evangel- 
istic service. On the other hand, the 
habit of dwelling upon the hunger of the 
world, and the sorrow of sin's conse- 
quences, in the spirit of a condescending 
Christ takes the harshness out of our tone 
and cultures a spirit of kindness and 

tolerance, that gives approach to men. 
SI 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

Go clown into the slums amid hopeless 
and helpless humanitT in the spirit of a 
ooldj critical student of conditions^ and 
YOU will find men drawing awav from you, 
and turning their cold side and manifest- 
ing their meanest spirit. But go down 
there in the spirit of a condescending 
Christy with loYe supreme, creating a 
warm and penetrating atmosphere, and 
YOU will find men moYing toward you; 
YOU will patiently melt your way into 
theii' liYes, and by the magnetism of the 
Christ lift them out of their sins and ont 
of themselYcs into a life of hopefulness 
and self-respect. 

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, 

Feehngs lie buried that grace can restore; 
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness. 

Chords that were broken will vibrate once more. 

This is true of all classes of people. "The 
heart of the world's hunger is the hunger 
of the heart.-' The aYcrage man likes 
genuine, manly, rugged heart-throbs born 
of real Christlike sympathy. 



52 



CHAPTER V 

The Correct Measure of the Evangel- 
istic Spirit^ or the Cost of Saving 
the World 

Humanity Is Away from the Church 

Because the Church Is Away 

from Humanity 

Early in the discussion we referred to 
the attitude of alienation and indiffer- 
ence assumed by such large numbers of 
people while the church moves on in her 
usual course in their midst; this is such 
an evident problem and so stubborn, that 
it is almost despairing ; we have deplored 
it, prayed over it, and tried every means 
of bringing men to the church. But we 
have overlooked very largely this fact: 
that humanity is away from the church 
because the church is away from hu- 
manity; the very constitution of Chris- 
tianity, as understood today^ and cor- 
rectly so, is not fundamentally an ecclesi- 

53 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

astical institution which saves men by its 
sacraments alone ; the world has little con- 
fidence in the saving virtue of a church 
or ministry that puts chief emphasis upon 
ritualism and priesthood; that says our 
business is not to go to you ; your business 
is to come to us. The world looks upon 
the Christianity of Jesus Christ not 
merely as an institution, principle, and 
spirit that says ^^Come/^ but a force that 
goes out into the highways of life; and 
they denounce Christians and the spirit 
of the church because it substitutes ^^Hold 
the fort'^ for ^^Rescue the perishing/^ The 
world interprets Christianity by the spirit 
of Him who represents himself as the 
Good Shepherd who goes out after the 
one^ though the ninety and nine are in 
the fold; and they lose confidence in the 
easygoing method of the church that 
shows none of the shepherdlike concern, 
but contents itself with infinitely less 
than the ninety and nine. 

In a great love feast at the seat of an 
Annual Conference on Sunday morning 

54 



THE CORRECT MEASURE 

the large church was filled in every part 
— galleries and chapel packed ; as the love 
feast was about to conclude, and hun- 
dreds of people had not participated, the 
leader said: ^^Let all who have not had 
opportunity to testify stand, and let all 
other Christians stand with them/^ They 
arose, a great throng, and as they stood we 
looked about and could not see a single per- 
son in that audience of ten to fifteen hun- 
dred who was not standing. I remarked : 
"What a splendid sight V^ to which an ex- 
perienced minister responded: "Yes, you 
see we don't need evangelism here/' How 
pathetic such a vision! Could there be 
any more desperate need of evangelism, 
when, in a large community where it is 
safe to assume one third of the popula- 
tion were neither Christians nor church- 
goers, on a beautiful Sunday morning, at 
the seat of an Annual Conference, with a 
bishop about to preach, one could see 
scarcely an unconverted person in the 
audience? What a comment on the com- 
mand the church had of that community ! 
55 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

We have been at ease in Zion, ^^holding 
the fort'' too long; now when we make an 
occasional dash with our ranks out upon 
the life of the world it is not taken seri- 
ously by the great mass of people. 

We Cannot Save the World by a 
Committee 

Greatly to the credit of Christianity, 
and an exceedingly hopeful aspect of to- 
day, is the fact that the wealth and intel- 
ligence, the social and public prestige of 
the world, are largely on the side of the 
Christian religion, giving to it the sa- 
gacity, the generalship, the organized 
force, and the material resources so ad- 
vantageous in pushing the interests of the 
kingdom of God. But from the days of 
Constantine until now one of the great 
problems has been to save the church from 
the peril of its material advantages; and 
this is one of our problems today. The 
church is not merely in danger but is actu- 
ally imperiled by the dependence upon 

mechanical processes, growing out of so 

56 



THE COEREOT MEASURE 

largely increased material resources ; this 
is not a sign, as some premillennialists as- 
sert, that the world is growing worse, and 
human nature more degenerate; it is the 
perfectly natural accompaniment of an 
inventive and mechanical age. ^^The man 
with the hoe'' is only a relic of the past; 
in his day when things were to be done, 
they were done; brain and heart did them 
single-handed and alone ; but today, when 
any real hard task is to be performed, we 
organize a company, buy a machine, or 
wait until some one invents one. No one 
denounces this as profane. Godless and 
faithless ; we boast that these are the prod- 
ucts of a Christian age, in which God is 
immanent, as never before. No sane per- 
son contends that intelligence, wealth, 
and material force, necessarily retard the 
kingdom ; everyone knows that when dedi- 
cated to God, or in hands so dedicated, 
they are mighty adjuncts of the kingdom's 
forces; but they are only adjuncts; they 
are not substitutes for the brain, brawn, 
and heart — the living sacrifices. Our peril 

57 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

lies in substitution ; a large percentage of 
our people now do not have to do the 
harder, more drudging work of life; they 
buy a machine or hire a proxy ; this prin- 
ciple is carried over into the church ; any- 
thing to be done — appoint a committee, 
hire a proxy. This is one of the perils of 
the church evangelistically ; we think we 
can save the world by a committee. 

It is this principle that has caused the 
church to slip out from under the burden 
of its supreme work by introducing an 
evangelist, and paying him, giving the 
least effort, for the shortest time possible, 
to these activities. The revival does not 
endure and the evangelist is blamed. If 
evangelism is to abide and be genuine, if 
the revival is to stay, it must have its 
roots in local soil; soil which has been 
saturated with the blood of personal sacri- 
fice and heartful service. Converts are 
like plants: having been transplanted, 
they have to get new rooting and new 
food, and they often wither and die be- 
cause there is no warmth, no moisture of 
58 



THE CORRECT MEASURE 

love and sympathy, which naturally ac- 
companies those who in the spirit of their 
condescending Lord, enter into the throbs 
of a real soul-saving movement ; they need 
someone to tie to who has helped them 
through the struggle. A mother cannot 
nurse a child until she has given birth to 
a child; a church cannot nurse, train, 
culture, and permanently save converts 
if she knows nothing of the travail of 
soul that brings them forth. For it is 
not merely the question ^^of getting the 
man into the church,'^ as someone has 
said, "but of getting the church into the 
man.'' Men can be manipulated into the 
church by mechanical process, but to get 
the church, the kingdom within men, they 
"must be born again.'' 

We Cannot Import nob Organize a 
Revival 

The church, for the most part, has been 
possessed of the idea that by surrendering 
all ordinary activities for the time being, 
and securing the services of men with 

59 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

special gifts and evangelistic reputation, 
she might thus, almost as by actual trans- 
fer, come into possession of a great reli- 
gious awakening. But revivals are not 
portable in any such sense; the weakness 
of movements here and there, under the 
direction of certain evangelists, is largely 
the result of an idle conJldence that these 
men carry in themselves alone the secret 
forces of a great religious movement ; the 
evangelists are not necessarily to blame, 
for the people would much rather have a 
revival thus than really pay the cost of 
one. Men of special gifts and wide ob- 
servations are worth having for inspira- 
tional purposes, as kind of John the Bap- 
tists ; but if the people themselves do not 
repent, the kingdom will not come. 

Nor can we organize a revival. There 
is not an earnest minister among us who 
has not spent much time and thought to 
learn how to organize his forces for an 
evangelistic campaign. Organization is 
not to be discounted; for some of the 

energy and inspiration in connection with 
60 



THE COEEECT MEASUEE 

spontaneous revivals is spent and lost for 
lack of organized effort and strong per- 
sonal leadership. This, however, would 
be the organization of living, breathing, 
moving forces; but we cannot substitute 
organization for life. Machinery is valu- 
able, but when machinery becomes su- 
preme, or when it has the larger con- 
sideration in our evangelistic interest, it 
is our peril; and all machinery, to be of 
religious force, must have a heart put into 
it; organization such as this wonderful 
age affords us may be greatly used, and 
by it the kingdom be made to move by 
leaps and bounds if that machinery is 
under the dominance of those who, in the 
language of Ian Maclaren, "have an en- 
thusiasm for humanity born from above.'^ 

The Urgency of the Inner 
Consciousness 

We have dwelt upon this principle of 
divine condescension as creative of the 
Christian vision and Christian attitude 
because it is this alone that can be de- 

6i 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

pended upon to furnish that unqualified 
consecration that makes us rescuers of 
men. 

The principle that began back yonder 
behind the ^^God so loved the world'^ 
runs all through the life of Jesus, char- 
acterizes the great throbbing evangelistic 
enterprises of history, and must ever man- 
ifest itself in real effective soul-winning 
work. The condescension of the Son of 
God was the overflow of the divine heart. 
It was when the great heart of God could 
contain itself no longer, that "he gave his 
only begotten son/^ and that overflow of 
the divine heart is the secret of Jesus^ 
soul urgency ; it breaks through, even be- 
fore (as some think) he was fully con- 
scious of his saviourhood: "Wist ye not 
that I must be about my Father^s busi- 
ness ?^^ There is in that the undercurrent 
of soul urgency. When Jesus suddenly 
takes his departure from the limited pro- 
gram of the Jewish conception of a King 
without a cross, and astonishes them with 

his passage into Samaria, it was but the 

62 



THE COEEECT MEASUEE 

overflow of his great heart, upon what 
to them was another world — Samaria; 
and the writer^s very words are full of the 
suggestion of divine urgency: "He must 
needs go through Samaria/^ His great 
impassioned soul could not contain itself 
longer within the narrow, bigoted, and 
intolerant bounds of Galilee and Judsea 
alone. All along virtue went out of him ; 
one cannot read of the entrance to Geth- 
semane, without feeling that a great inner 
pressure literally drove him to the garden, 
where he anticipated the cross. This is 
the secret of reaching human hearts — by 
conveying the impression that our inter- 
est is spontaneous, that it is born, not 
forced, that it comes of vision and pas- 
sion. 

There is always danger of the economic 
spirit entering our service — a purpose less 
than the absolutely unselfish. This too 
frequently appears in the consideration 
of the church. We sit down and count 
the cost of meetings ; we discuss whether 

we can afford it ; we go every night to stip- 
es 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

port the services rather than out of a soul 
passion; if men discover this, they are 
not moved by our appeals, or captured by 
our efforts. Our service for God in the 
interest of a lost world, to be at its best, 
must be free from the formal and perfunc- 
tory, free from the mechanism of a pro- 
gram, free from the low ideal of times 
and seasons. It must be by the urgency 
of the inner consciousness, carrying with 
it the force of lovers desperate determina- 
tion. 

"He Saved Others^ Himself He Could 
Not Save^^ 

These words, unwittingly spoken, are 
the correct measure of the evangelistic 
spirit, and reveal the actual cost of sav- 
ing the world. We cannot save ourselves 
and others; we cannot conduct the mag- 
netism of Jesus Christ to a lost world 
through these lives of ours in sufl&cient 
measure to draw men to the Christ unless 
we lay them down in the consecration of 

"living sacrifices.'' Jesus said: ^^And I, 
64 



THE CORRECT MEASURE 

if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me/^ The pains of the 
cross must enter into his experience; men 
must be able to see him "nailed to the 
tree/^ and have forced upon them the 
vision of unqualified sacrifice ; it was that 
which made those apostles in the Roman 
empire living sacrifices, and their lives, 
in turn, magnetic with the power of the 
cross. There is no human instrumen- 
tality equal to the task of saving this 
world except it be saturated with the 
strenuous, life-giving spirit of the cross 
of Jesus Christ. 

This in no little measure accounts for 
the breaking down of the evangelistic life 
of the church in the last half century. A 
well-meaning, but insufficient type of con- 
secration has been urged upon the church ; 
a consecration that rests altogether too 
much with God, and leaves us too restful 
in the hands of God; this type began un- 
doubtedly with a needed emphasis, but it 
was carried so far that it defeated itself. 

Consecration had come to mean so fully 
65 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

a mere committal of life to God in a 
largely negative sense that it relieved of 
all responsibility, left everything with 
God to do ; eliminating the vigorous, self- 
denying, life-giving elements of the cross, 
until a new or renewed definition of con- 
secration seems to be necessary ; and it is 
the shrinking in this luxuriant age from 
this exacting type of consecration that 
makes the present awakening come with 
such faltering step; it costs too much in 
^^living sacrifices/^ 

.We Must Not Push the Woeld Off 
Our Hearts 

The problem in these days is also 
greater because of the difficulty of getting 
the world upon our hearts. We have so 
many things urging attention, so much to 
employ our head and hands, so much to 
take our time and sap our energy; busi- 
ness life with its grasping ambitions, 
social life with its multiplied attractions, 
give small chance for the great matters of 

a lost world and its needs to press upon 
66 



THE COREECT MEASURE 

our hearts ; the disposition is to shun any- 
thing like a heart-burdening considera- 
tion of the world's needs; and whenever 
conditions are likely to press this great 
matter upon us until its interest shall 
crowd us with deep concern and anxiety 
the tendency is to push the world off our 
hearts and to give ourselves, perhaps, even 
more than usual to the consideration of 
general religious interests which do not 
burden us, and which furnish a plausible 
substitute, that does not greatly interfere 
with our social ease and commercial am- 
bitions. We do not mean to be under- 
stood as urging that this spirit of Jesus's 
program is to be carried out by us in sav- 
ing the world, because there is any real 
atoning virtue in the burdens we bear, 
and the sacrifices we make; but to the 
extent that we are the instruments of 
salvation, we must possess the spirit of 
Jesus, for we are under the great com- 
mission of Christ: ^^As the Father hath 
sent me, even so send I you/' "He that 

will not take up his cross and follow me 
67 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

cannot be my disciple/' which does not 
mean an atoning cross but a cross having 
in it redemptive qualities to the extent of 
bringing men to feel how great is the love 
of Christ and how eager he is to save. 
For there is in every life, that lives to 
make others live, an "Inward Calvary." 
The mother enacts it every day she lives ; 
and it is well understood that the mission- 
ary amid the untaught heathen, or those 
buried in the slums, must constantly real- 
ize this ; they must feel the virtue pass out 
of them. Sometimes the preacher finds 
it hard to preach with a real passion, and 
he leaves his study, goes out on an errand 
of love to some poor "shut in," sits down 
amid sickness and gloom, or visits a ward 
in a hospital. Then he comes back to sat- 
urate his sermon with the spirit of Him 
who spent much time thus, and who is 
"touched with the feelings of our infirmi- 
ties.'^ 

Life evermore is fed by death, 

In earth, in sea, and sky. 
And that a rose may breathe its breath, 

Something must die. 
68 



THE CORRECT MEASURE 

"He Went a Little Farther^^ 

We have already pointed out that it was 
not a formal program which Jesus fol- 
lowed into the garden but the pressure 
of the world upon his heart, and the ur- 
gency of his inner consciousness under 
the dominance of condescending love re- 
sponding. But these words stand out in 
the record as full of meaning; what a 
revelation they are! "And He went a 
little farther.'^ It was only a little far- 
ther^ physically speaking, only a few feet, 
perhaps, just in the shadow hidden from 
view, but in the deeper sense of its inner 
meaning it was leagues away; indeed, a 
great gulf lay between where he, in the 
wakefulness of divine agony, sweat great 
drops of blood, and where his chosen 
friends slept peacefully. This is the spirit 
that is necessary to save the world; the 
spirit that makes us go "a little farther .'' 
That spirit has inaugurated every great 
revival, revolutionized human society, and 
opened every dark land to the gospel of 
69 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

Jesus Christ; this was the spirit which 
made Paul willing to be accursed for his 
brethren and kinsmen's sake; this spirit 
made Knox pray, ^^Give me Scotland or 
I die'^; this spirit sent Livingstone to 
plant the cross in Africa at the cost of his 
splendid life. 

Let the followers of Jesus today give 
the world enough chance to press itself 
upon their hearts, sending them into their 
gardens to struggle, and into Christ's 
service to toil; let them give themselves 
in that passion that disregards the list- 
less sleepers, pushing on forgetful of toil 
and sacrifice in the passion of the Christ, 
and the evangelistic crisis will soon have 
passed, for the clouds of mercy will break 
upon the parched ground, the windows of 
heaven be opened, and a flood of salvation 
poured in upon a thirsty, waiting world. 



70 



CHAPTER VI 

Abiding Evangelism; A New Emphasis 

For the past few years the church has 
been turning its attention to the problem 
and possibility of continuous evangelism, 
and is trying to get hold of the principle, 
become possessed of the spirit, and fash- 
ion its method of evangelistic activities 
and operations so that they will have in 
them a force of continuity that will save 
from reaction, and give larger guarantee 
of thorough and self-perpetuating move- 
ments. 

The increased vision of the enormous 
character of the evangelistic problem, as 
we face the great masses piling up in our 
metropolitan districts, together with 
teeming millions of those now coming to 
our view as the open doors of the heathen 
world cause this vision to stretch out be- 
fore us, make all to realize that neither 
facts nor faith give any ground for hope 
that the kingdom of Christ will ultimately 
71 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

triumph by spasms of enthusiasm and 
periods of enterprise. There is a growing 
conviction that some process more nearly 
corresponding to Jesus's idea of the leaven 
in the meal is the only hope of the king- 
dom's coming. "We do not believe there 
is either desire or disposition upon the 
part of the church to lessen emphasis upon 
genuine spiritual life and the ^^power not 
our own'' which ever has, and must, char- 
acterize all genuine evangelism ; but there 
is a profound feeling that something vital 
is lacking in all of this for permanently 
and hopefully grappling with the evangel- 
istic situation; this emphasis does not 
alone furnish qualities sufficiently con- 
tinuous and cumulative to stay the faith 
of the church. 

Side by side with the spiritual life and 
divine energy, which comes from above, 
with which the impossible things are done, 
side by side with the evangelistic spirit 
must be the evangelistic life ; or, in other 
words, in addition to the periodical, delib- 
erate and organized effort of bringing men 
72 



ABIDING EVANGELISM 

to Christ, there must be just as earnest a 
determination to 

Take Christ to Men. 

In that great sermon of Jesus which 
may be properly characterized ^^the con- 
stitution of the kingdom of God/^ he said, 
evidently intending it for his disciples to 
whom he was to give the great commission 
and for all who should come after them : 
^^Ye are the light of the world/^ "Ye are 
the salt of the earth/^ Elsewhere he re- 
inforced that same principle more speci- 
fically by the parable of the leaven. 
Strangely the Christian Church has un- 
consciously or unintentionally almost 
eliminated this great principle from its 
evangelistic thought and enterprise. 

The decided assurance with which Jesus 
spoke of the coming of his kingdom must 
have been based upon that redeeming, 
revolutionizing, and conquering power of 
the gospel leaven working out through the 
life of men in every walk, everywhere, 
every day. 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

The "return to first principles'^ will in- 
volve this among other things, for it was 
most certainly with this emphasis that 
Jesus inaugurated his great movement. 
We can easily see how he emphasized the 
evangelistic life; from his policy we 
should gain this conception rather than 
that of any personal or organized evan- 
gelistic campaign; and we shall find 
this largely true of Paul also, if we do 
not read our modern views into his teach- 
ing and method. We do not mean by this 
that the developed policies of evangelism 
under direction of the apostles or later 
leaders of the Church of Christ are with- 
out full authority and divine ordering, but 
they are not more so, to say the least, than 
the methods set forth in the teaching and 
practice of the Christ himself. We have 
previously remarked that humanity is 
away from the church because the church 
is away from humanity; and that the 
church to win the confidence of the world 
must move out in an aggressive spirit of 

rescue. With equal emphasis we assert 
74 



ABIDING EVANGELISM 

The Church Must Go into the Wokld^ 

OR THE World Will Come into 

THE Church 

There are those among us who greatly 
bemoan and condemn the worldliness of 
the church; their idea of an unworldly 
church, hence a spiritual church, is in the 
exclusiveness of a negative attitude to- 
ward the world — an attitude of resistance 
of worldly influences through exclusion 
from them. This process never has kept 
the church from worldliness, and never 
will ; the way to defend the church against 
worldliness is not by passive resistance 
alone but by aggressive effort to triumph 
over the world ; not by staying away from 
it, but by carrying the saving, redeem- 
ing, and conquering elements of Chris- 
tianity out into the world, and thus help- 
ing to shape its policies in keeping with 
the fundamentals of the kingdom. The 
church must go into the world or the 
world will come into the church. By tak- 
ing the church into the world in this con- 

75 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

nection we mean carrying the dignity, 
virtue, and self-denying principle of the 
kingdom into every department of life, 
all under the dominance of this supreme 
evangelistic spirit, and inflamed by the 
true evangelistic passion. If there is any 
virtue in genuine Christian personality 
upon which Jesus evidently expected to 
depend, the personality that incorporates 
his spirit and sends men "about doing 
good,'' then it will be readily seen that 
while it may take ten men to bring one to 
Christ, one man may take Christ to ten 
others; and if the value of taking Christ 
to men has any reasonable correspondence 
to the value of bringing men to Christ, 
this gives greatly increased ground of as- 
surance of the kingdom's triumph. This 
emphasis will break down the barriers 
and remove the obstructions in the path of 
the church by making Christ and Chris- 
tianity agree. 

We will not lay less emphasis upon the 
great atoning work of Jesus Christ and 

our dependence upon him; we shall still 
76 



ABIDING EVANGELISM 

declare with just as much earnestness 
"there is no other name'^ that has saving 
power in it; but we must accompany our 
faith in Chrisfs death hy the practice of 
Chrisfs life. 

At this point let us not lose our balance, 
for all itnTjalanced movements of Chris- 
tianity have been temporary movements. 
This has been the cause of loss of time and 
resources all through history. Kevivals 
and reformations have come up and tri- 
umphed by restoring to emphasis some 
neglected truth ; and then the church has 
sunk back in time by neglect of another 
truth through emphasis upon the one that 
brought about the renewal. And so age 
after age has the kingdom moved until 
periodical revivals seem to be the normal 
process, based upon the precedent of his- 
tory. We must, therefore, in emphasizing 
this idea of the evangelistic life, guard 
against the danger of losing the force of 
the term "evangelistic.^^ The evangelistic 
life is not merely one of passive consist- 
ency but a life so inflamed with the evan- 
77 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

gelistic spirit that it is nerer wholly pas- 
sive, because always imparting the saying 
power of the evangelistic touch. *TBefore 
that which Christ wrought out for us can 
be wrought out in us, before Christ's 
death for us can become Christ's life in 
us, we must meditate upon the truth of 
the gospel untU it becomes inspiration, 
passion'' (Butler). 

This has been the hard thing to estab- 
lish, and one of our evangelistic problems; 
we have had two distinct classes of people 
in the church, growing out of emphasis 
upon the two distinct phases of Christian 
truth : one class believing in what it calls 
practical Chrij?tianity, meaning by that 
a straightforward life, day by day, lived 
formally, and perhaps passively, in keep- 
ing with the fundamental principles of 
the Sermon on the Mount This class has 
not emphasized evangelism as such, 
though possessed of some elements vital 
to it. The other class plac-es chief em- 
phasis upon thase personal and organixed 
activities that make for bringing m^i to 



ABIDING EVANGELISM 

Christ. This classification is due chiefly 
to two causes — traditional teaching and 
personal temperament. These are not op- 
posite but complementary forces, which 
should as far as possible be blended in 
one. This blending will come about, as 
we have already intimated, not by em- 
phasizing one aspect of truth but both; 
by urging upon the people of zeal the 
necessity of more practical and vital liv- 
ing, and by making clear to the people of 
formal life the absolute necessity of im- 
passioned service; in other words, the 
church must discern the facts and rise to 
them, namely, that the ultimate triumph 
of Christianity will be by an evangelistic 
spirit backed by a life, or a genuine life 
inflamed with a passion. 

This Will Give Entrance to Communi- 
ties FROM WHICH We Are Now 
Barred 

Because we have meetinghouses in the 
midst of people where regularly we preach 
the gospel it does not follow that we have 

79 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

real entrance to these people. Because 
we are able, with no one to molest and 
make afraid, to conduct periodical revival 
services with more or less respectable 
appearance of doing something it does 
not follow that we have evangelistic ac- 
cess to that community. China's walls 
are now down and missionaries are no 
longer barred, yet it does not follow that 
we have actual entrance to China; but if 
we have, as never before, we may see some 
special providence in barring these doors 
until the nations were less intolerant and 
more ready to be Christians, not only in 
their dispensation of the gospel of the 
Golden Rule, but in putting the Golden 
Rule into practice, in their commercial 
and governmental policies as well. 

This balance of emphasis and the con- 
ditions that grow out of it will give more 
than a technical and nominal access to 
individuals and entrance to communities. 
When once you have convinced a com- 
munity which for a half century, more or 

less, has been under the influence of and 
80 



i 



ABIDING EVANGELISM 

paralyzed by a formal, lukewarm church 
of respectable standing, but no Christian 
passion, or, on the other hand, a church 
of spiritual exercises and periodical evan- 
gelistic zeal, void of practical piety, that 
these two great principles can be blended 
in one splendid consistency, complement- 
ing and reinforcing each other, then we 
will discover that this world is neither 
ignorant of, nor unconcerned about, the 
religion of Jesus Christ, but will be ar- 
rested in the face of such a miracle and 
led to think seriously of this great matter. 
Jesus was heard gladly in the temple 
by the common people, because he lived 
before them a self-denying and uncom- 
promising life, and caused that life to 
glow in saving passion toward a lost 
world. The common people are just the 
people we cannot reach today, yet the 
people who always have and always will 
incorporate the principles and spirit that 
saves the world, because they carry the 
world^s burdens, and their heart-throbs 
are the very pulse of humanity. 

8i 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

This Larger Conception Means Larger 
Results 

There is reason to believe that one of 
the chief causes of the failure of evangel- 
ism to sustain itself, has been the failure 
to aim at the larger, rather than the lesser, 
results. So long as the church depends 
chiefly upon professional evangelism, this 
is bound to be true; this is not a reflection 
upon the professional evangelist, it is in- 
evitable, and comes from causes that 
annoy him as much, or more, than any- 
one concerned. His calling is dependent 
upon his success, and the only measure 
the church has been willing to put upon 
his success has been the number of tabu- 
lated conversions ; and he has felt obliged 
to get results that would be accepted as 
such. Revivals have been discounted, and 
evangelists also, because these men have 
tried to do the quite impossible thing in 
a church and community, namely, have a 
great revival with large numbers of con- 
versions where no evangelistic conditions 
82 



ABIDING EVANGELISM 

have been generated; and so results have 
been forced, and were therefore not genu- 
ine and abiding. The evangelist who cre- 
ates new conditions, brings in a new at- 
mosphere, puts the church in a new light 
and a stronger position in the community 
from an evangelistic standpoint, has an 
infinitely harder task, and may have ac- 
complished much more for the kingdom, 
comparatively, than the man who, under 
favorable conditions, with good prepara- 
tion for his coming, secures a large success 
in the number of persons converted. 

We need to revise our evangelistic 
creed in respect to what evidence in re- 
sults our faith shall rest upon. We must 
not exact so much in given periods of 
time, and in a certain number of services, 
and by operation of so much machinery, 
but, rather, emphasize the character of 
our effort, its quality as well as quantity, 
the general as well as specific results ob- 
tained, and, above all, the conditions that 
follow special effort both as to the possi- 
bility of maturing the fruit, and also of 
83 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

perpetuating the moyement; these latter 
are by far the truer eriterions of the real 
force of an evangelistic effort. 

This larger conception means ulti- 
mately the larger result, for this is ex- 
actly what the evangelistic life will do; 
it will not merely operate machinery with 
earnest, self-sacrificing effort "to bring 
men to Christ/^ but it will generate a con- 
dition by which the larger, deeper, more 
abiding results will obtain, through "tak- 
ing Christ to men/^ This does not dis- 
courage working for immediate results, 
but it does relieve us from the peril (for 
such it is) of requiring results regardless 
of conditions, and thereby causing reac- 
tion and reflection ; and it 

Furnishes the Only Conditions for 
Continuous Evangelism. 

We must learn to esteem not less highly 

the temporary effort, and rejoice not less 

in immediate definite results, especially 

when such come through a life and spirit 

toward which the church has gradually 
84 



ABIDING EVANGELISM 

moved, out of which breaks a splendid 
revival, and a large ingathering ; and yet 
we must train ourselves to esteem more 
highly than we do, those processes whose 
definite results are less measurable, and 
whose influences are less inspiring, be- 
cause they reach through months or years, 
culminating gradually, or at some distant 
point through a cumulative force, break- 
ing, possibly, into a great revival far re- 
moved from the activities which began 
its generation. 

We must be able to see that the revival 
that gathers one hundred people in two 
weeks, with such reaction as is likely to 
follow because of lack of preparation for 
and by the absence of evangelistic activi- 
ties the balance of the year, is not to be 
compared in permanent effect to a move- 
ment that brings an average of two per- 
sons to Christ each week for the entire 
year with all the influence upon the 
church and community that such a spirit 
and life is bound to exert. Evangelism 

must no longer be considered as belonging 

85 



THE GKEAT COMMISSION 

to some particular phase of church life 
but must season every department and 
temper all its spirit. It is being clearly 
demonstrated that even though pastors 
and people may be ever so conscientious, 
it is nearly useless to attempt evangelistic 
work by multiplying services, if the 
church in the truest sense is not in the 
spirit of it. It may be that genuine con- 
secration in an unselfish spirit to the work 
of the church in its various fundamental 
activities, may have as much to do with 
ushering in a revival as multiplied serv- 
ices. By such means channels of divine 
energy may be opened which have long 
since been clogged by the semi-Christian 
motive with which our church work is fre- 
quently performed. 

The careful study of the present situa- 
tion suggests that the church must pre- 
pare itself by such continued policy from 
week to week and month to month as will 
bring about a condition of spontaneous 
evangelism. Special effort must be more 

and more the result of a condition in the 
86 



ABIDING EVANGELISM 

church that demands multiplied services 
for the purpose of gathering in the fruit 
of a spiritual quickening which the church 
in its normal activities has generated. 
This will, as previously intimated, de- 
mand a reconstruction of the evangelistic 
policy of the church, a complete readjust- 
ment of its life. The time has come with 
great urgency when the church must, and, 
we believe, will, rise to the vision of God 
and usher in a revival that will give us a 
wider vision of Christianity's meaning, a 
profounder sense of Christian responsi- 
bility, and intelligent, voluntary response 
to the all-commanding commission of our 
Lord, a keener sense of righteousness in 
congregation and community through the 
actual presence of God among his people, 
quickening conscience and furnishing the 
initiative for all true and effective re- 
forms, a spiritual atmosphere in which 
sin is uncomfortable, spiritual life thrives, 
and evangelism becomes the normal state. 



87 



CHAPTER VII 

The Preacher^ and His Part 

There is a tendency in some quarters 
to depreciate the value of the minister's 
work as a preacher and leader. Only re- 
cently an eminent minister of an orthodox 
church, addressing a body of theological 
students on the eve of their entrance into 
the active ministry, made this sweeping 
assertion : ^^The day of preaching is past/' 
and then went on to affirm that the chief 
work of the ministry of the future is to 
consist in other activities than that of 
preparing and preaching sermons. That 
there may be some need of larger emphasis 
upon certain lines of activity upon the 
part of the ministry, hitherto overlooked, 
and for which this practical age makes 
demands, there is little question but that 
we have reached a stage of intelligence 
and sense of duty upon the part of the 
Christian world that does away with the 
necessity of the prophet's voice and the 



THE PREACHER AND HIS PART 

apostle's leadership we are surely not 
ready to concede. 

^^An Apostle of 'Jesus Christ^-' 

The above is the title which Paul as- 
sumes after his conversion on the Damas- 
cus road. To us Paul stands out as a 
character whose movements seem to be 
representative of the real position of the 
gospel ministry. Not that every minister 
shall be just like Paul, but his are the 
truest ideals to be aimed at. Such mo- 
tives, impulses, ideals as controlled Paul 
have never appeared in a merely profes- 
sional ministry, though that ministry were 
of highest order touching personal char- 
acter, mental force, and purity of pur- 
pose. Such characteristics are the irre- 
pressible convictions of one who is under 
the spell of "Woe is me if I preach not 
the gospel.'^ Such a ministry, not merely 
"masters its subject but is mastered by its 
subject.^^ The former may be enlightening 
and conclusive, but the latter alone makes 

men possessed of evangelistic power. 

89 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

"An apostle of Jesus Christ." There is 
something comprehensive and forceful in 
that title. It means a follower and a wit- 
ness, a teacher, preacher, and leader, a 
missionary, and, in some measure, a reli- 
gious general, for Paul possessed all these 
qualities; and to some degree the true 
missioner, or evangelist, to a lost world 
must have them. As surely as Saint Paul 
was the man for the hour in laying the 
foundations and setting in motion the 
currents of power in which were contained 
the revolutionizing elements of a great 
revival, so surely was this great all-con- 
trolling idea of apostleship the chief 
source of that power of personal leader- 
ship. Every great revival in history has 
surged out of the soul of some great man, 
not necessarily great in all respects, but 
great as an "apostle of Jesus Christ," 
great in his conception of the Christian 
mission and in his devotion to it. When a 
man can have so marvelous a vision of the 
sweep of Christ's purpose and power, and 

then can be so under the spell of carrying 
90 



THE PREACHER AND HIS PART 

out that purpose that he can say with a 
spontaneous burning fervor, ^Tor me 
to live is Christ/^ that man stands at the 
very summit of greatness so far as the 
Christian mission is concerned. 

A Crucial Man 

It has been well said, "We can hardly 
conceive what the Christian religion 
would have been but for the life and min- 
istry of the apostle to the Gentiles/^ In a 
measure, nearly every movement of Chris- 
tianity, every awakening, and every re- 
vival seems to depend in no little measure 
upon some crucial man in whom the apos- 
tolic mission throbs and flames. We need 
to return to an apostolic ministry not of 
traditions and customs, but a ministry 
which, though not sure of its historic 
connection with the earliest age, is sure 
of an infinitely greater, more authorita- 
tive and miracle-working commission — 
the commission of a living Christ to men, 
by a living spirit which takes the things 

of Christ, and on some Damascus road 
91 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

makes these men the possessors of the 
sublimest vision and the greatest mis- 
sion beneath which a human heart ever 
throbbed. 

It is very apparent that the ministry 
has drifted away from this conception of 
its mission. We make this statement re- 
luctantly; we wish it were not true; but 
one who has had occasion to move among 
the present-day ministry, and note with 
what statements they discuss the question 
of entrance to and departure from the 
ministry for other pursuits, cannot over- 
look this. Just at present we hear on 
every hand the lamentation of the Church 
of Christ over the insufficiency of minis- 
terial candidates. To those who have al- 
ways looked upon the ministry as a mis- 
sion to which a man is called, and upon 
which he is sent, not of men but of God, 
the various reasons given in the wide 
range of these discussions which attempt 
to account for the lack of ministerial can- 
didates are really a surprise. If there is 

reason for the assertion ^^that the day of 
92 



THE PEEACHER AND HIS PART 

preaching is past/^ and the ministerial 
function no longer vital, it is due to this 
chiefly : that the ministry has drifted away 
from its apostolic commission, and with 
the absence of this apostolic sense, and the 
force it carries with it, the ministry com- 
paratively fails; and hence the excuse, 
^^The day of preaching is past/^ 

The day of preaching is not past; the 
man with the apostolic vision of Chris- 
tianity, the apostolic commission, convic- 
tion, and passion, never was in greater 
demand for the mission of awakening and 
reclaiming this lost world than today. If, 
however, preaching is to be in demand and 
the ministry retain its power and glory, 
it will have to return to the first funda- 
mentals of the apostolic conception, and 
proclaim the real evangel of Christ to a 
lost world. To accomplish this, in this 
complex and distracting age, requires 
that men give themselves to careful and 
earnest consideration of the evangelistic 
need of the hour. The evangelistic 
preacher must be 

93 



^HE GREAT C0MMISSI0:N* 

A Sensitive Student. 

By a sensitive student we mean one 
who, with unbiased mind, lays himself 
bare to such divine impressions as the man 
of vision and leadership must receive. 

He must learn to appreciate the move- 
ments of God, which to the average man 
of today are lost amid the materialistic 
tendencies of the world, on the one hand, 
and the formal and mechanical processes 
of religion on the other. His attitude to- 
ward this great problem of how to save 
the world must be so reflective and in- 
tense that his heart will respond with sen- 
sitiveness to every indication of the divine 
presence and power. He must be some- 
thing more than a mere surface observer, 
giving this matter an occasional thought, 
when incidentally or of necessity his at- 
tention is directed thereto. He must be 
able to detect the deep undercurrents of 
thought and life. This is, perhaps, the 
supreme weakness of the Christian con- 
sciousness in the ministry of today; it 

94 



THE PEEACHER AND HIS PART 

observes only the surface and fails largely 
to apprehend God's movements. We are 
aware how busy is the average pastor, and 
how much of his time, of necessity, is 
taken and thought absorbed in working 
out the ordinary problems of church life, 
and responding to the almost innumerable 
calls for attention to things of little mo- 
ment; but if he is to be sensitive to the 
divine leadership, he must give this sub- 
ject large right of way in all his thinking 
until his mind takes such direction and 
his perception becomes so keen that he 
can, in some measure, thread the delicate 
ways over which God is leading in times 
of spiritual awakening. 

If we are to train ourselves toward ex- 
pectancy (and that is no little part of 
faith's conquering element), we must not 
obstruct the vision of the Divine Presence 
by keeping our eyes forever looking up 
the traditional paths over which so many 
times God has come down to this old 
world and spoken to it anew. The danger 
is that we shall train our thought to- 

95 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 
ward expectancy only in one direction. 

God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform, 

and the very mystery of it is often that 
it is an unexpected way. The vision of the 
mountains filled with horses and chariots 
stimulates our faith, but let us not lose 
the force of the whisper of the still small 
voice while waiting for the rushing wind. 
God has not yet exhausted all his sur- 
prises. 

He Will Be a Preacher of the 
Prophetic Note 

His voice will be as a voice in the wil- 
derness ; he will be as one having author- 
ity ; a man with a real message, born today 
out of his own vision and conviction; a 
genuine herald, preaching not merely out 
of a book but out of his own consciousness 
of the Divine Presence and power. The 
book will furnish his basis of authority, 
and the Scripture, windows of illumina- 
tion, both heavenward and earthward; 

but he will not have to go back 

96 



THE PEEACHER AND HIS PAET 

to Moses, David, John, nor Paul, but 
will, like these, give to men a present-day 
deliverance of his own soul on the 
signs of the kingdom^s coming. His 
answer to inquiring humanity will be the 
same as of old, "Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved,'^ but he 
will not be obliged to contend for PauPs 
authority; it will be his own announce- 
ment of the saving power of the present, 
living Christ. This will make him the 
freshest preacher in the land. We do not 
mean the most novel in a purely popular 
sense, though he will not live in the past ; 
nor do we mean that he must have read 
every latest book, though, if out of these 
he gets the burning thoughts of living 
men, they will not harm; but he will be 
fresh in the truest sense, for he is keeping 
up with God. Evangelistic preaching is 
by many thought to be dry and tedious. 
Mere repetition of trite dogmatic state- 
ments, void of living, fiery personalities; 
preaching that emphasizes the authority 

of tradition is dry, but evangelistic 
97 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

preaching that has its own authority, 
that is born today, that makes use of 
God^s lessons in a world which God has 
not abandoned, but in which he is ever 
present, and above all, preaching that has 
behind it a personality, strong, sturdy, 
and magnetic, yet tempered with the gos- 
pePs matchless, modifying generosity, will 
in any age have both the ear and the heart 
of the world. The man who keeps in 
God's great laboratory where he is work- 
ing no uncertain experiment in making 
over this old world, will be the freshest, 
most up-to-date man to be found, always 
far ahead of the ordinary thought and pur- 
pose of the world, and able to bring fresh 
light and inspiration to men. 

The preacher who will learn the secret 
of effective evangelistic preaching, will 
not undertake 

Evangelistic Preaching for Effect. 

Sometimes men have been caught with 

a spell of evangelistic desire, or have seen 

the fruitlessness of their ministry aside 
98 



THE PREACHER AND HIS PART 

from this, and have set apart a period of 
time, and have begun a new departure 
with an earnest determination to "preach 
for results,^^ because the conditions de- 
mand it; and they have been surprised 
that they did not have larger success. 
This savors too much of evangelistic 
preaching for effect. Preaching to be thus 
effective must have deeper root than this. 
It must have connection with, and grow 
out of, all previous preaching ; preaching, 
though not distinctly evangelistic, never- 
theless, has this as the underlying motive 
in every sermon; a man cannot neglect 
these great truths and appeals eleven 
months out of twelve, or four years out of 
five, and then with sudden impulse and 
departure by unusual effort usher in a 
genuine revival of religion. 

We have known some excellent men 
who, seeing the barrenness of their minis- 
try, and awakening to the importance of 
cultivating this power, have given them- 
selves over to it for a time, and not becom- 
ing proficient at once, they have gradually 

99 



THE GREAT COMMISSION 

dropped the idea, returning to the old no- 
tion that they are not called to be evan- 
gelists, nor even evangelistic. This proc- 
ess in a minister's life takes time, espe- 
cially with men of certain ethical bent; 
temperament has much to do with the 
readiness with which this takes hold of 
men ; nor can one who has been averse to 
this, or even utterly neglectful for years 
of it, expect to become possessed of it at 
once; he must continue to reflect, study 
the human urgency of the world, on the 
one hand, and the divine sufficiency and 
passion, on the other, until the fire of it 
kindles and burns within his soul, and 
his whole nature gradually comes under 
its sway. If he will continue honestly 
and earnestly this process, as surely as 
God has called him to this great apostolic 
mission of proclaiming a saving evangel 
to a lost world he will find evangelistic 
preaching breaking spontaneously out of 
his own soul, without regard to the sched- 
ule of times and seasons. Above all con- 
sideration of qualifications for such work, 

100 



THE PEEACHEK AND HIS PART 

without which all other qualities will not 
assure success, and with which men often 
have succeeded in spite of other disquali- 
fications, is the absolute determination to 

Stake One^s Life for a Cause. 

One of the reasons why it is hard to 
keep the ranks of the ministry recruited, 
more significant than lucrative entice- 
ment, is this : that, as compared with other 
engagements in this stirring age, the min- 
istry is a very tame proposition ; for finan- 
cial considerations it could not command 
the best, and ought not, and it has lost 
to many the glory of heroism, the thing 
which in ministry and in civil service has 
always drawn the best. Best soldiers are 
had in time of war, not in peace; drones 
are satisfied with drill and parade or 
guarding a fort, but ambitious men of 
stuff soon tire of that; they hunger for 
the glory of service. When the ministry 
ceases to be a great rescue work, because 
the church has abandoned the business, 
it will be less and less attractive to the 

lOI 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

noblest men, especially those best fitted to 
do its work. The church makes the min- 
istry to as great a degree as the ministry 
makes the church. A few generations of 
an ease-loving, selfish, commercialized 
church will produce a ministry void of 
the heroic qualities that have made men 
leaders of Christian forces in rescuing 
the world. When the church loses its 
evangelistic life and spirit, and wants 
ministers to speak only comforting words 
and indulge the church in its ease-loving 
course, it will secure men largely who are 
^^hirelings,'^ as no other inducement re- 
mains, and the hireling is useless in the 
service of Christ; the hireling cannot be 
trusted with the work of saving this 
world; he will not take the risks; ^^the 
hireling fleeth because he is an hireling.'^ 

Conclusion 

These are days which call for great 
things from the servant of God; the days 
in which the ^^greater works'^ are to be 
done; the comprehensiveness of the work 

102 



THE PEEACHER AND HIS PART 

of the minister of today is such that he 
often becomes disturbed with the enor- 
mity of his task and the slight ripple he 
is making on the seething sea of human 
problems. If he is in dead earnest, he 
must be led to cry out again and again: 
^^Who is sufficient for these things ?^^ The 
current against which he struggles very 
nearly baffles him. Yet in our moments 
of clearest vision and truest faith the 
work we are about lifts itself so above all 
occupations of men and angels, and the 
all-commanding commission of Jesus our 
Divine Lord rests upon us with such ur- 
gency, that we catch the thrill of their 
inspiration, and cry out: "I can do all 
things through Christ which strengthen- 
eth me.'^ 

Mr. Weinel in his great book, speaking 
of what Paul accomplished single-handed 
and alone, actually turning the tide of the 
centuries in a most difficult age, ascribed 
his unparalleled achievements in the in- 
terest of the Christian faith to this. 

"There is a mighty power in a man who 

103 



THE GEEAT COMMISSION 

stakes his life for a cause.^^ This more 
than anything else is the great secret of 
the preacher's success in any age, as a 
leader of God's hosts in rescuing the 
world — the man in whom the "hireling'^ 
is never seen, but who without doubt or 
hesitancy as to his call to the gospel min- 
istry absolutely loses himself in the su- 
preme determination to ^^stake his life 
for a cause/^ 



104 



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